Ivybridge Community College has been forced to close its doors today because of a serious electrical fault.

It comes a day after hundreds of students were told to stay at home because of industrial action by the National Education Union (NEU).

Principal Rachel Hutchinson posted the following letter on the college's website:

Dear Parents/Carers

I regret to inform you of an electrical fault in school which means that we have a limitedservice and resource across the College site. This fault will have a significant impact upon the lighting, heating, cooking and more importantly, a working fire alarm, which presents concerns for the health and safety working conditions for both students and staff.The anticipated work would require an electrical shut off on Thursday March 16.Therefore, the College will be closed on this day to all students including those who havepreviously been invited in. The position at present looks challenging despite current efforts, but the contractors and site team will be working through the night on solutions. We are inongoing discussions with the electrical contractors and the building maintenance team to find a solution to allow us to open to all students on Friday, March 17 as usual. As a result, weare not able to open to any students so please do not send your child to College.We wanted to inform parents/carers, students and families and make them aware of thisfrustrating development as soon as possible.In line with the current strike action programme, work for Years seven to 10 will remain unchanged and will be available via epraise. Due to the electrical fault, the Collegewill be unable to deliver live lessons via MS Teams for Years 11 – 13. However, for those lessonswhere teachers are not engaging with the strike action, specific work will be set via epraise. In all other cases, students should complete independent revision for each subject on theirtimetable. Work will also be set for Core subjects via epraise for students to completethroughout the day if additional activities are required.We anticipate having clearance to allow students and staff back on site with access to allbuildings and facilities on Friday, March 17, but please be ready to receive updates onour website and by email over the course of the next 24 hours where we will keep youinformed if this situation changes.We apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause.

Yours faithfully Rachel Hutchinson Principal